ID :
350865
Thu, 12/11/2014 - 06:25
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Malaysia, South Korea To Set Up Economic Cooperation Panel

From Ahmad Fuad Yahya SEOUL (South Korea), Dec 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and South Korea have agreed to set up an Economic Cooperation Committee to further develop economic and trade ties, says Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Najib said the scope of the cooperation would be further expanded to include the implementation of the second wave of the 'Look East' Policy (LEP 2.0) based on guideline covering 12 indicative areas. The agreement was reached at the talks between Malaysia-South Korea delegations when Najib and South Korean President, Park Geun-Hye, met at the Blue House here Wednesday. Najib said that under LEP 2.0, Malaysia and South Korea wished to see both countries focused on various strategic sectors apart from the development of human capital which was the main focus. Currently, the bilateral relations are good and much progress has been achieved in various sectors, especially trade and investments. "The trust of the relationship is based on trade and investment. The two-way trade grew by 4.5 per cent a year since 2011 and currently it amounted to US$18 billion," he said. The investments from South Korea, he said, had shown encouraging growth and last year the country was the second biggest investor in Malaysia with US$1.67 billion investments. This year, South Korea is in fifth spot. On cooperation in the field of education, he said President Park was keen to see Malaysia also offer Korean language in schools, and in this regard the Ministry of Education has sent teachers to South Korea to learn the language. Currently, 589 Malaysians are studying in South Korea, most engineering, and there are 1,126 post-graduates from South Korea studying in Malaysia. On another development, two South Korean companies have shown keen interest to invest in the petrochemical industry in Bintulu district in east Malaysian state of Sarawak, Najib said. He said one of them, Lotte Chemical Titan, which had already invested US$2.1 billion in Pasir Gudang, Johor (Malaysia's southern state) planned a further investment of between US$3 billion to US$4 billion in Sarawak, probably in Bintulu. Another company plans to invest US$700 million to produce polyurethane in Bintulu beginning next year, he added. Najib said however, the investment would depend on the supply and price of gas, pending negotiations with Malaysian oil and gas company, Petronas. Najib earlier held a dialogue with a group of South Korean business leadershere. A collaboration between LG Electronics with Proton on the production of a Proton Iriz electric vehicle prototype, which was still at the testing stage, was also discussed at the meeting. "To date, the tests showed encouraging results, but we need to make some decisions before the car can be commercialised," the prime minister said. Najib said the South Korean business community was also interested in the creation of the Asean economic community by the end of next year, but they were of the opinion that the customs regulations, taxes, among others, should be harmonised as a single market. "Perhaps we need to continue with efforts to enhance understanding of Asean as an economic community that can meet the expectations of the business community," he said. The South Korean business leaders also expressed their appreciation to the International Trade and Industry Ministry and the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority over their roles in enhancing Malaysia's business-friendly policies. --BERNAMA

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